Pens n' paper
by Manga154
Summary: An outlet for one is a portal for some. New doors open and the fabrics of both family and friends.


Pens and paper

Karakura town: Ichigo's home town

Hueco Mundo: world of Hollows

Gotei 13: the 13 commanders of Soul Society

Visored: Shinigami who gain Hollow powers.

Central 46: legal body of 46 representatives, corrupted and twisted.

One month, and six days...

That was how long it took for the novelty of being a normal human to ware off. It had taken a month of being human for him to start questioning why he had made the decision to give up his powers, three days after that he had started questioning why he had to be the one to give everything up, and yesterday he asked himself why he was so alone. He hadn't seen or heard from anyone from the other side, hell, he even tried to go see Hat 'n Clogs but only found an empty lot where his shop had been. Same with the Vizards, but their warehouse was just empty instead of completely gone.

There were also his so called friends to think about. Chad, the giant who swore to always fight by his side; Orihime, the air head who would follow him like a lost puppy; and finally Uryū his rival turned ally, turned out to be cousin. He hated the fact that so much of his family was hidden from him, there were so many options he could of had if it hadn't been for his father, or Hat-n-Clogs for that matter.

Ichigo rolled onto his side, he hated how his mind was wondering without the constant threat of Hollows attacking. The conclusions his mind was bringing up terrified him, and even more so that he couldn't bring himself to outright deny many of them. Many of them made him rethink about killing Azin.

The more he thought about it the more he didn't like it. Everything seemed to fall together to perfectly, the hollow attacks, both the one that killed his mother and the one that forced Rukia to give him her powers, the one between those two could have been the first try to force Rukia to give her power to him. His father's constant attacks and treatment of him could have been attempts at both isolate and condition him.

There was also the lack of Shinigami when he was growing up, there was no way all the Shinigami sent out to the living world were as skilled as most of second division, the Afro guy had been proof of that.

Azin had said his whole life had been a set up, but he honestly didn't know who was truly pulling the strings, and who just thought they were. There were three people left when it came to having the ability to manipulate his life, the first a foremost being his father. The second being Kisuke, he was highly intelligent and had used both himself and Rukia as pawns in the past. He was the reason Rukia was unable regain her spirit powers and why she was nearly executed, he was probably hoping his damned stone would have been destroyed along with Rukia's soul. The ex-captain, turned shop owner, could probably be one of the most dangerous beings around if he was given enough time to plan, and more then likely used him against Azin just for that reason.

The final person who could be capable of such manipulations would more then likely be the Captain Commander, but the old captain didn't seem to posses the mentality to pull off such a plan, but it all could have been an act. He had the resources and the man power to initiate such an endeavor, but Kisuke was to much of a wild card to be given such long term tasks. If the old man was as responsible for his life it would have been much later in the game, possibly the first hollow that killed his mother, the chance to kill a pureblood Quincy was more then likely too rare of a chance to pass up.

With a sigh Ichigo rolled back over onto his back, his eyes aimlessly roaming the ceiling as they had done many times before. The pre dawn light was filtering through his window, telling him he had yet again spent another night without sleep, and despite the lack of bags under his eyes he hadn't slept in more then a week. Sometimes he had blamed his nightmares in the beginning, but soon dismissed them, the memories had become nothing more then a much needed distraction and an easy +A in literature class.

Speaking of Literature Class, he needed to gather his assignment together. It hadn't taken him long to finish it, being it was a follow up of his first assignment, all he had to do was pick up from where he had left off with Gin's first appearance and the gate being closed on him. Since no one in school would ever read it, besides his Literature and foreign Language teachers, he hadn't needed to change much, if anything at all.

He silently looked at the large stack of paper on his desk. It covered his time in Soul Society, beginning as they had sought other means to break in, and ended when Azin plunged his hand into Rukia's chest. As much as he hatted to admit it he had changed a few actual events thanks to his teacher, making it a bit more of a romantically involvement between himself and Rukia. It was also the reason he cut the story short to leave Mis. Ikari with a cliff hanger, he did find so much enjoyment with how she reacted to his abrupt endings.

With a sigh Ichigo stretched out and got up out of bed. He did a few quick stretches and ended with a few stances of his training style before gathering up the stuff he needed for school. The sun was barely over the horizon as Ichigo slid the last folder into his bag, his retelling of the invasion snuggly between his math and history text books. He had nearly three hours before he needed to be at school, he truly hated sophomore year, and there was left with nothing to do, again for the fourth day in a row.

Sitting at his desk Ichigo absently rolled a pencil back and forth. He knew for a fact that if he started writing his recovery and departure from Soul Society then he would no doubt be late for school, and being late would bring the wrath of Mis. Ikari on him harder then normal.

"Maybe I need to get a pet..." Ichigo mumbled as he started spinning his pencil between his fingers. His mother had always loved cats, and by default they had been his favorite animal when he was younger, but the reminder of Yoruichi had killed that idea for a pet. Birds had long since started to creep him out, both thanks to the one soul who had been stuck in a bird and a American movie he had seen years ago, "The Crow" or something along those lines.

All that was left for conventional pets was Dogs and reptiles of some sort. He truly had nothing against dogs, they reminded him of no happy memories or sad ones, he was just indifferent to them. If it wasn't for that each time he had encountered one of any breed they seemed to be more brain damaged then his father he would actually put more thought into getting a dog, so no, unless he found one that was intelligent enough to meet his standards a dog was out.

With traditional pets out the window (excluding an intelligent dog) he was left with the more exotic pets( i.e. More expensive(not that money was an issue anymore)). It was an amazingly simple task to run through all the animals his child like mind had listed as possible pets before his mother died. Ichigo honestly found himself withholding a chuckle as he remembered more of the ridiculous things he wanted as a pet.

He honestly wondered how his young mind had come to the conclusion that Dragons were real and would make amazing pets. Standing up Ichigo began to change his clothes hand finish the morning rituals before changing into his uniform and garbed his coat and bag. A glance at both the alarm clock and out the window, he could only sigh, seeing as he had only waisted about twenty-some odd minutes getting ready.

Shaking his head Ichigo just quietly left his room and made his way through the house as silently as possible. After making a detour to the kitchen to pick up some of the leftovers from last night he slipped his shoes on and quietly shut and locked the door behind himself. Seeing how he had over two hours to blow, Ichigo simply turned around and started heading in the opposite direction of school, and towards the "City" part of Karakura also known as the local tourist trap.

Little did Ichigo realize that his little side trip would bring forth both amazing and terrorizing chances.


End file.
